In explosion-prone areas, for example, on drilling rigs, the electrical energies present at the external electronic interfaces of an electronic device can ignite a gas-air mixture present in the surroundings and cause an explosion. This applies particularly to highly reactive gas mixtures such as possibly mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen, for which said energy is available as activation energy in order to initiate an exothermic reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to give water. The same applies to gas mixtures of acetylene-oxygen.
Furthermore, in electronic devices there is the risk that upon heating above a critical Temperature—possibly as a result of a malfunction in the device—the thermal energy provided on the device surface can also result in ignition of an explosive gas mixture surrounding the device.
Countermeasures known from the prior art therefore provide to arrange the electronic device in a pressure-tight casing which is intended to prevent reactive gases coming in contact with the device surface including the electronic or electrical interfaces present there. In such pressure-tight casings however it proves to be problematical that certain gas forms, as a result of the small size of the gas molecules or gas atoms, can also diffuse into casings designed to be pressure-tight and can there come in contact with the electronic device.